


No Rest for the Restless

by vmprsm



Series: LC Destin [12]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Bickering, F/M, Other, an unexpected partnership, annoying boyfriends, clandestine relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-10
Updated: 2017-10-10
Packaged: 2019-01-15 12:02:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12320700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vmprsm/pseuds/vmprsm
Summary: Things have been quiet. Apparently, according to the galaxy, too quiet. Destin gets a call she never expected, about something she should have.





	No Rest for the Restless

Some days came at you entirely together, planned and executed without issue or delay. Some days were not so simple. You couldn't tell these days apart at the outset, and Destin liked the second kind of day very little. Today was the first kind it seemed, as there were no issues of note. At least, none that Destin was aware of. Yet.

 

She was happily tinkering, shimmied under a stubborn shuttle that didn’t want to circulate oxygen (fixing it as a favor to Selene, she owed the trooper her life and more) and humming some random tune she probably heard once on the holonet. Her watch beeped, signaling an incoming call, and she tapped on the comm in her ear to answer it. Nowadays, she got so many calls and messages she had to be constantly connected, and her hands were far too busy to hold a datapad 24/7. 

 

“Destin,” she answered, distracted. Her fingers slipped on a particularly stubborn screw head, her omnitool too fat to fit in the space where she could loosen it more. 

 

“Hey, uhm,”

 

She paused. She knew that voice. 

 

“This is Caez.”

 

Dammit.

 

“Yes?” She replied curtly. She didn’t  _ dislike _ Caez (she did a little), but they had never spared her any real kindness, and this could only be bad news.

 

There was a pregnant pause. “So there’s an  _ incident _ occurring on the bridge, and I thought you should know.”

 

The wheedling tone, dancing around the subject, was highly irritating. Destin had gotten more and more to the point as she got more involved with the Order; there wasn’t time to pussyfoot around hard topics. “What?” She asked sharply. “What is happening?”

 

“It appears that General Hux is arguing with Kylo? I mean it isn’t the first time but we are like right out in the middle of the bridge and it’s getting kind of heated.” Caez sounded uncomfortable, and in the ensuing silence, Destin thought she could make out voices in the background.

 

“And...you thought I could help?” Destin asked.

 

“I thought you would care,” Caez replied, beginning to sound a little annoyed themself, “aren’t you two...close?”

 

_ Close _ . That was one way to put it. “I’m sure there’s a good reason for their disagreement.” Destin said, but she was already scooting out from under the shuttle. Selene stood up from her bench, and Destin gestured her over to get her jacket back. She waved away Selene’s curious eyebrow raise and mouthed ‘ _ later _ ’. Selene, bless her heart, shrugged and held up Destin’s jacket so she could slip her arms into it, sleeves still rolled up to the elbows to keep grease off them.

 

“One second,” she said to Caez and muted the call, “it’s not done,” she said to Selene, “but something came up and I’ll be back for it.”

 

“Don’t worry about it, RA,” Selene replied. Destin nodded, and hurried out of the hangar. Once in the hall, and moving for the bridge, which thankfully wasn’t too far away, she unmuted Caez. 

 

“Okay, what are they arguing about?”

 

“Oh. Uh, it’s a lot of jargon that I don’t really understand? I heard the codename for the new Starkiller I think--I’m not supposed to know that, anyways, something about Skywalker too, but that was only for a second. I think they were just trading jabs but now the General actually looks angry. His cheeks are turning red.”

 

Destin had never seen that before, but she could easily imagine his pale skin turning red. It probably clashed with his hair. She decided to tactfully ignore the admission of semi-treason. “So they’re still at it?”

 

“Yep. It’s been a solid couple minutes now. Everyone’s watching and they haven’t seemed to notice.”

 

Destin yanked her gloves back on. “I’ll be there in fifty seconds.” The lift let Destin out just down the hall from the bridge, and two guard troopers nodded her past. She was basically allowed wherever she wanted to go now, sans the hyperdrives ( _ still _ ) and the Supreme Leader’s audience chamber. She didn’t want to go to the latter anyways. 

 

“Thirty-nine,” Caez said dryly.

 

“Hush,” Destin admonished. She’d calculated the route before. She knew exactly how long it took to get anywhere important on the  _ Finalizer _ . It was all part of her elaborate and detailed emergency plans.

 

That was totally normal, to have very,  _ very _ detailed emergency plans that may not fall in line with those put in place by the First Order. She just wanted to be prepared and that had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that she’d almost died on Starkiller. Nothing at all.

 

“Fifteen,” Caez said with a clear smirk in their voice. Destin wondered casually when they got so chummy, but maybe that was nervousness due to the situation. 

 

“Five,” Destin snapped back without fire as the bridge doors opened for her. She slowed through the doorway to take in the scene. 

 

Well, at least they weren’t all  _ right _ in the middle of everything. The center catwalk was blessedly empty, but before it and to the left were the two men, as stated, standing close enough together to just avoid shouting. Good thing too, as the bridge was utterly silent besides their bickering. Kylo was without his helmet, and the waves of his truly unfairly nice hair shined in the lights.

 

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Caez sidling up from the right, making as little extraneous movement as possible to avoid drawing attention from the co-commanders. Destin noted automatically that their cape was gone, an odd departure when Kylo now wore a full cape. She tried not to catalogue all the little things. 

 

“Hey,” they said quietly, “you look good.”

 

Destin realized that Caez hadn’t seen her since she was in medbay after Starkiller’s collapse, months ago now. She’d had so much going on since then, she hadn’t had time to think about the Force-users, them or Kylo. It was a surprisingly kind thing to say, all things considered. “...thanks.”

 

“Yeah. So this...yeah.” Caez and Destin watched the pair for a moment. They didn’t look like they were going to stop any time soon. 

 

Destin held up a finger. “Let me try something.”

 

She walked, not shyly but not loudly, to where Caez had been standing, to the right of the men and about ten feet away, nearer to the far wall. They had been standing behind Kylo, but in the position Hux could see her. She stood in parade rest, watching his face, and waited. His face really  _ was _ getting red. Was he getting enough oxygen, she wondered? Was his throat tired? Destin tried very hard not to pay attention to whatever they were arguing about, she’d probably hear all about it later anyways. 

 

She waited. 

 

Destin’s legs whirred softly, and she took that as a reminder to check her watch. With dismay, she realized it had been two whole minutes, and Hux’s focus hadn’t wavered. She was clearly in view he just...wasn’t noticing. She wasn’t sure whether to be insulted or just tired. His singular focus was much less impressive outside of a podium or a conference room. 

 

She shifted her weight between her hips briefly and raised an eyebrow, trying to use the little movements to get his attention. Another minute, nothing. What were they fighting about, the fate of the universe? Nothing should be so engrossing.

 

Finally, she gave up. She dropped her stance and went back to Caez, who had started leaning against the wall near the doors. Their grey-black outfit blended in with the durasteel even better than the officer’s uniform. “I told you,” they said quietly. 

 

“I just don’t understand, he’s not usually like this.” Destin replied, rubbing her forehead. 

 

“He is,” Caez said, nodding to Kylo, “and they really don’t get along on a good day from what I’ve seen.”

 

Destin sighed. “They don’t. How do you deal with him?”

 

Caez let out a short laugh under their breath. “I was going to ask you the same thing.”

 

“To each their own, I suppose…” Destin trailed off, thinking. This was the closest she had come to openly admitting her relationship with the General. It felt right, and while she had already assumed about Caez and Kylo, their conversation was all but confirming it. Why would they put trust in her about information that was so dangerous? In the end, even if they didn’t really get along, they now had the ammunition to ruin each other, and that imparted its own kind of camaraderie. 

 

The ruling about higher officers having any sort of personal relations was murky at best. It was ill-defined in the handbook, while relations between officers and troopers was perfectly clear ( _ No).  _ Lower officers were strongly encouraged to avoid emotional attachments as part of their training, and they were all so busy it was hard to even begin in the first place. But this thing between her and Hux...it had just grown without either of them consciously agreeing to it. They worked better together than apart, and so far they hadn’t compromised any of the rules or their morals for what they had, as far as she knew. So it didn’t seem to be of any harm. Still, it was better to play her cards close to the chest: the higher ranks were rife with climbers, and she didn’t want to give anyone a reason to scrutinize her work.

 

Caez rolled up off the wall. “What’s the plan?”

 

“Plan?” Destin asked, pulled out of her own thoughts.

 

“This is frankly embarrassing. People have noticed us, so might as well commit.”

 

“Hmm, we can’t really be too obvious, that’s insubordinate.” Destin muttered, and looked down at her watch. “I can ping Hux’s pad with an important message. Can you do the same to Kylo?”

 

“He doesn’t carry that thing.”

 

“Can you...I don’t know…” she waved her hand at Kylo in a motion that could be construed as mystical. “Use the Force?”

 

Caez looked uncomfortable. “That’s not...ugh. I can try.”

 

Subtly, Caez held a gloved hand out, low and close to their side, while Destin pulled out her datapad from her hip pouch and wrote a quick message.  _ GH, urgent matter, please meet at access panel A2. -RA D _

 

Access panel A2 was right outside the bridge in the hallway, so it would be fairly obvious that it wasn’t a real ‘urgent matter’, but if anyone read the message they would believe it was. 

 

Caez screwed up their face briefly, scars scrunching in wiggly lines, then dropped their hand and stuck the other on their hip in a huff. “He’s blocking me out. Stubborn ass.”

 

As she put her pad back, Destin could  _ see _ the comm in Hux’s ear start blinking, but he seemed to ignore it. It seemed like the dam of their patience had just broken, and they were arguing about everything under the stars that they didn’t like about one another’s process. She crossed her arms, mimicking Caez and dropping her weight onto one hip. “This is just stupid.”

 

“Yep. I can’t do much else. I’m already toeing the line here.”

 

They stood like that and watched, likely looking for all the galaxy like two annoyed parents watching their children kick sand at each other on the playground. A calmness settled over the pair and while it wasn’t exactly friendly, it was comfortable.

 

“You know,” Destin started, mentally noting that the novelty of the fight was wearing off as the bridge staff went back to their tasks, “I didn’t think that something like this would bring us together again. I was sure you hated me.”

 

Caez looked over, but Destin made herself keep looking ahead. “I don’t hate you. I thought you hated me.”

 

“Well after throwing me into a wall, I assumed.” 

 

Caez flinched. “I never...that was an accident.”

 

“Hm.” Destin was mostly over it, but still hadn’t heard an apology, so she would harbor the grudge for a bit longer. 

 

There was a pause, tense, then Caez seemed to toss it off. “I say we give up on them.”

 

Destin hummed. “I do have things to do.” 

 

“Alright.”

 

She narrowed her eyes, suddenly annoyed. She’d already wasted time on this. This  _ was _ stupid. “But so does he. Enough.” If she couldn’t do this, what was the point of them claiming they had anything between them?

 

Destin walked over, stopping dangerously close to them so they could both see her. She shook her bangs out of her eyes and cleared her throat, cutting off Hux’s sentence in the middle of a hissed  _ ‘let me tell you how you should  _ not  _ run a recon mission--’ _

 

“General Hux, sir.”

 

If the room had been quiet otherwise before, now it was practically a grave. She heard Caez’s strangled noise of protest. 

 

Hux stopped abruptly, and turned his head to blink owlishly at her. Across from him, Kylo’s stunned look was also angled her way. The combined weight of their gazes was heavy. The only one who probably ever interrupted them was Captain Phasma. Or the Supreme Leader.

 

“Rear Admiral?”

 

Well, at least he didn’t sound angry, more confused. “I came to retrieve you before the conference? We were to go over the notes as per your request.”

 

There was no conference, and they all knew it. Hux was quiet for several long seconds. “Very well.” He said, voice scratchy. He leveled a glare at Kylo. “Take the bridge.”

 

Kylo looked ready to protest but reined it in with a venomous curl to his lip. “Caez, go train. I’ll finish out the shift here.”

 

“Of course.” Caez replied. 

 

Very conscious of the eyes upon them, Destin turned and started off the bridge, the soft sound of his boot heels and the swish of his coat letting her know that Hux was behind. As the doors shut, she turned to see Hux and Caez stopped as well.

 

Caez looked between the two of them. ‘I’ll...just go.” They said, and slipped past Hux to continue down the hallway. Destin nodded to them as they passed, and Caez returned a searching, thoughtful look. Their hair fluttered out behind them, longer now than Destin remembered, then they were gone down the hall.

 

Destin felt very alone then, despite the full bridge just beyond and Hux staring her down. She didn’t know what to say.

 

“Well, Rear Admiral,” Hux said, clasping his hands behind his back. “since the  _ conference _ was rescheduled, it appears I have the rest of the shift available. I was under the impression you were on your rest shift?”

 

She had been, and had decided to fix a ship rather than rest. She was not going to tell him that. “Yes sir.”

 

He looked her over. “Destin, you smell of coolant.”

 

“I usually do.” 

 

“Do you usually have your sleeves pushed up like a grease monkey?”

 

“...I was resting under a shuttle. Very relaxing.”

 

Hux sighed and began down the hallway. “I’m not going to regret any of what you saw,” he said over his shoulder, “Kylo Ren is the bane of my existence and simultaneously apparently the most important being in the universe, or so he thinks. I’m tired of his attitude and his insistence on trying to run  _ my _ ship.”

 

“I understand, sir.” Destin replied patiently. As expected, he was venting to her, which had become the norm for them, but it was happening much faster than usual.

 

He whirled on her, advancing with a stern expression. Corralled, she backed up, stepping into a side hall and bumping the wall. “Hux?”

 

“I’ve told you about using ‘sir’ like that.”

 

“I’m sorry, sir, I was trying to be appropriate for the environment.” He bracketed her on either side with his arms, practically covering her with his height. She looked up by necessity, bolding meeting his eye. Her hands settled on his coat lapels without hesitation.

 

He quirked a side of his mouth up. “Oh I’m sure. You’re so adherent to the rules all of the time.”

 

“Hey! I’ve gotten better.” She protested, but the bangs slipping back into her eyes belied her words.

 

“Do you want to go rest?”

 

“Come with me.”

 

“I need to work.”

 

“Then work. Just be with me at the same time.”

 

“Ah, well,” Hux leaned down, pressing a soft kiss to her temple. She smiled. “I suppose I can multitask.”

 

He probably would do both,  _ and _ continue to bitch about Kylo. But that would be okay, because they would be together. She would need to thank Caez later, because this was really working out in her favor. 

 

Destin reached up and peeled one of his hands from the wall, taking it in her own. “Then let’s go.”

 

“My quarters or yours?” He asked, letting her lead him down the hall with their fingers entwined, away from the main corridor and to a smaller lift system. 

 

“Hux! Scandalous.”

 

He laughed. “Mine, then. Can’t have your droid watching us, can we.”

 

Destin laughed as well, and pulled him into the lift.

**Author's Note:**

> aluckyartist.tumblr.com made art for this! I commissioned it, of course, but it was made so lovingly I just can't imagine anyone else doing my baby girl justice. I'll link it here as soon as it's posted. :)  
> The same artist also owns Caez, and they are a lovely, messy, wonderful being that I have nothing but the utmost respect and love for, and I write them into my story with permission.


End file.
